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A cheer coach resigns

Assistant says UGA mistreated Braswell

Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2004

By Ross Markmanross.markman@onlineathens.com

The University of Georgia's assistant cheerleading coach quit his job Tuesday, three weeks after the squad's head coach was fired for telling cheerleaders that one of their teammates had accused her of religious discrimination.

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Brandon Register, who coached for two years and was a UGA cheerleader from 2000-02, said he left the post because he didn't support the athletic department's termination of ex-coach Marilou Braswell.

Braswell on Sept. 2 filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the UGA Athletic Association and a group of individual defendants, including UGA President Michael Adams, athletic director Damon Evans and senior associate AD Frank Crumley, over her firing. The ex-coach's suit claims her First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom to practice religion were violated when she was dismissed.

The cheerleader, senior Jaclyn Steele, alleges that UGA's cheerleading program is wrapped in pervasive Christian overtones and that her own non-participation in pre-game prayers and Bible studies at Braswell's home made her an outcast on the squad.

Braswell had been on probation since November 2003, when Steele, who is Jewish, first alleged that her non-Christian beliefs impeded her chances of making the team.

Register, a UGA graduate student, said what motivated him to quit was not the religious issue, but rather how the university dealt with the situation.

"I felt like it was handled in a bad way in the beginning, but I was going to try to make the best of it," he said. "It was just really embarrassing. I definitely think (Braswell) was mistreated by the athletic department."

Register said he notified interim coach Kim Mayer following Tuesday morning's practice that he no longer would help coach the squad.

And he isn't the first to leave the team in the aftermath of Braswell's firing.

Third-year cheerleader John Baldwin, a senior from Marietta, quit following UGA's first home football game, Sept. 4. against Georgia Southern University.

Baldwin had been mulling whether to stay on the team or to focus on personal matters, such as graduating from UGA. Braswell's firing, he said, helped make up his mind.

Baldwin, who attends Bible studies in Braswell's home in Bogart, suggested Steele's claim that Christian cheerleaders were given preference is unfounded.

As a freshman, Steele was on the football cheering squad - the top team - but then slipped to the men's basketball team and then, last year, women's basketball. UGA athletic officials promoted her back to the football squad this season without a tryout.

"I went through the roster for the past two years and looked at everybody who had been on the squad, where they had moved and whether or not they attended Bible study or called themselves a Christian," Baldwin said. "There is no pattern."

Meanwhile, Braswell is scheduled to appear Thursday on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News. Her attorney, Hue Henry of Athens, said earlier this week his client hasn't filed any additional motions since the Sept. 2 lawsuit.

In addition to seeking compensatory and punitive damages from the athletic association, the suit asks for a temporary restraining order and an injunction requiring Braswell's reinstatement as coach.

The suit calls for athletic officials, if Braswell's re-hired, to be prohibited from disciplining her for holding team prayers or voluntary Bible studies.